INORDINATE RISKS, RANDOM REWARDS

“We used single neuron recording techniques in two behaving monkeys to investigate the conditions in which dopamine neurons respond to primary rewarding or potentially rewarding stimuli. Animals received drops of liquid either outside behavioral tasks or as rewards during learning or established performance of an auditory reaction time task.

Three quarters of dopamine neurons showed a short-latency, phasic response to liquid that was delivered outside the task without being predicted by phasic stimuli. The same neurons responded to liquid reward during learning but not when task performance was established, at which time the neuronal response occurred to the conditioned, reward-predicting, movement-triggering stimulus.

These data suggest that the responses of dopamine neurons to rewarding or potentially rewarding liquid are due to the temporally unpredicted stimulus occurrence. A known, reward-predicting, tonic context does not prevent dopamine neurons from responding to the rewarding liquid. The responses during learning apparently occur because reward is not yet reliably predicted by a conditioned phasic stimulus. Because the unpredicted occurrence of reward is of central importance for learning, these responses allow dopamine neurons to play an important role in reward-driven learning.”

The above abstract appeared in an article titled “Importance of unpredictability for reward responses in primate dopamine neurons” by J. Mirenowicz and W. Schultz in the Journal of American Physiological Society. It shows how random reinforcement affects judgmental capacity in primates. Can this evidence be used to explain a number of seemingly irrational aspects in human behavior?

Let’s take the case of Gamblers. Ever wondered what draws a person to bet (and loose) units of his wealth in a game where the return/reward is entirely dependent on a chance outcome (win criteria) and where the odds of winning the bet are, to an overwhelmingly large extent, unfavorable? It is certainly the random nature of rewards, the excitement resulting from uncertainty of the next move and the possibility of winning the next round, which is pulling his strings. One may also look at the fact that winning a gambling bet does not require any kind of effort or talent. All that is needed is a wad of cash. (I may do well to mention that by gambler I mean the average gambler who bets against pure chance. Professional gamblers who employ complex methods to take advantages of vulnerabilities in the design of various casino games (counting cards in BlackJack for instance) and thereby improve their odds of winning are outside the scope of current argument).

Ever fancied another ‘stranger’ woman/man while being in a relationship? Blame your dopamine neurons which led you to anticipate disproportionately higher rewards in the potential courtship than which could be rationally explained by any degree of reasonableness. Anticipation of higher rewards in another relationship can lead a man/woman to completely/partially (depending upon released dopamine levels and the individual’s reasoning ability) disregard the risks associated with the engagement. Many flourishing relationships end up bitterly, large number of teenage girls across India become victims of prostitution rackets every year, owing to this very phenomenon.

Do you smoke? Well if you do, chances are you are doing it because ‘you know’ that smoking will one day take your life away. Welcome to the world extreme risk preference. Smoking kills, everyone knows this fact. But what no one knows is – When?. It is this unpredictability of death associated with smoking which attracts people to it. The reward of course is the “high” or “kick” induced by nicotine present in tobacco. But rewards if predictable and devoid of any risk are seldom interesting. Believe me, take my word, had there been any surety of death by smoking or surety of its absence, had there been a definite timeframe for death caused by smoking, no one would have taken to smoking. People who leave smoking do so by consciously (and with great difficulty) alienating themselves with a variety of other risk taking behavior. In other words they modulate their ‘overall’ risk taking behavior to give up smoking. Environmental change, change in peer group, entry into new relationships sometimes changes a person’s overall risk perceptions and therefore sometimes, people give up smoking “Just like that”.

Risk taking behavior is an integral part of our primal instincts, in the stone ages risk taking was amply rewarded by a good hunt and therefore food for some days ensuring survival. Men exhibit higher levels of risky behavior than women (based on credible researches done in the past by credible academicians) partly due to their biological setup and partly because they have always been doing it – blame evolution. Risk taking behavior even in the modern context is not bad per se, at times it is necessary for survival and healthy living but one needs to closely monitor, regulate and critically examine one’s display of such behavior when dealing with ‘people’ in inter and intra personal and group settings.

YF - IThink